In the decorating industry, distributors of decorating items, such as carpeting, wall coverings, window treatments, etc., typically maintain samples of such items in books in which the samples are organized and presented for convenient viewing by a potential customer. Most often, the sample is mounted to a card which is releasably held in place in the book by a ring binder, the use of which facilitates the replacement of sample cards for discontinued products with sample cards for newly introduced products.
As a result of the plethora of styles, colors and patterns in which these products are available, these books are frequently filled with more sample cards than they were originally intended to hold. Consequently, such books become very difficult to manage. This is particularly true where the books contain bulky items, such as carpet and window treatment samples, which fill such sample books rapidly.
Several difficulties arise in connection with the overfilling of these sample books. Firstly, it is often necessary to first remove numerous sample cards from the ring binder in order to reach an obsolete sample card which is to be removed or to reach the proper position at which a new sample card is to be inserted. More importantly, when too many sample cards are retained by a single ring binder, the cards will not lie flatly as progressive cards are turned for viewing by a customer.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to design books which will overcome these difficulties. Once such device, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,414,758 to Stavenagen, employs two ring binders connected at opposite edges of a book structure having a rectangular cross-section so as to use the space within the book most efficiently. Such configuration is impractical for use in sample books containing bulky samples since the cards having such samples do not assume the triangular cross-section typical of books having conventional pages. In another such device, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,177 to Jordan et al, a plurality of ring binders are assembled adjacent one another on the spine portion of an exhibit book. In such structure, however, the proximity of the ring binders to one another does not permit the pages held by any one ring binder to lie flatly, thereby making it more difficult to view the specimens on these pages.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,341 to Langhorst, the patentee discloses a hinged binder assembly specifically directed to retaining and displaying samples of bulky items mounted on sample cards. Each sample card is retained by a generally rectangular rail member which can slide relative to the other rail members so that the sample cards can be stepped relative to one another and all of the samples can be viewed at one time. Not only is this hinged assembly costly to manufacture due to its complexity, but it only holds a fixed number of sample cards since each sample card must have its own rail member.
There therefore exists a need for a sample book which is capable of releasably holding a plurality of sample cards, and particularly cards having bulky samples, and which will permit the cards to lie flatly for viewing when the book is opened. Preferably, such sample book will form a compact unit when in a closed position, and will therefore be easily transported and used.